The Arts of Islamic Civilization

34 Pages·2014·2.33 MB·English

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   24
The ARTS
of
Islamic Civilization
Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ
the international institute of islamic thought
 • 
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© The International Institute of Islamic Thought
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no reproduction of any part may take place without
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978-1-56564-558-5
The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author
and not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher is not
responsible for the accuracy of the information presented.
imagesp.6, 7 (copper plate), 10, 18, 21, 27iStockphoto
p.8, 9, 10 (prayer rug), 11, 12, Wikimedia Commons
Typesetting and Cover design by Shiraz Khan
Series Editors
dr. anas s. al-shaikh-ali
shiraz khan
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Foreword
      () has
great pleasure in presenting Occasional Paper 24The Arts of Islamic
Civilizationby Isma¢Ïl al F¥r‰qÏ. It was originally published as chap-
ter eight of The Cultural Atlas of Islamby Isma¢Ïl al F¥r‰qÏ and Lois
Lamy¥’ al F¥r‰qÏ (1986), and formed part of a monumental and
authoritative work presenting the entire worldview of Islam, its
beliefs, traditions, institutions, and place in the world. Aside from
the map illustrations, all other images have been updated and are not
those of the original unless specified. Where the text refers to chap-
ters these are to be found in the original work.
Professor Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ (1921–1986)was a Palestinian-
American philosopher, visionary, and an authority in comparative
religion. A great contemporary scholar of Islam, his scholarship
encompassed the whole spectrum of Islamic Studies, covering areas
such as the study of religion, Islamic thought, approaches to knowl-
edge, history, culture, education, interfaith dialogue, aesthetics,
ethics, politics, economics, and science. Without doubt al F¥r‰qÏ
was one of the great Muslim scholars of the 20th century. In this
paper he presents the meaning and message of Islam to the wider
world, pointing to taw^Ïd(the unity of God) as its essence and first
determining principle which gives Islamic civilization its identity.
The IIIT, established in 1981, has served as a major center to
facilitate serious scholarly efforts based on Islamic vision, values and
principles. The Institute’s programs of research, seminars and con-
ferences during the last thirty years have resulted in the publication
of more than four hundred titles in English and Arabic, many of
which have been translated into other major languages.
 . --
Academic Advisor, IIIT London Office
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The Arts of
Islamic Civilization
In dealing with any aspect of Islamic civilization,
its final raison d’etre and creative base must be seen as resting on
the Qur’¥n, the Holy Scripture of Islam. Islamic culture is, in fact, a
“Qur’¥nic culture”; for its definitions, its structures, its goals, and its
methods for execution of those goals are all derived from that series of
revelations from God to the Prophet Mu^ammad in the seventh
century of the common era. It is not only the knowledge of Ultimate
Reality that the Muslim derives from the Holy Book of Islam. Equally
compelling and determining are its ideas on the world of nature, on
man and all other living crea tures, on knowledge, on the social,
political, and eco nomic institutions necessary for the healthy running
of society –in short, on every branch of learning and activity known.
This does not mean that specific ex planations and descriptions of
every field of endeavor are literally spelled out in that small book of
114 suwar (sing. s‰rah) or chapters. It does mean that in it the basic
principles are provided for a whole culture and civilization. Without
that revelation, the culture could not have been generated; without
that revela tion, there could have been neither an Islamic reli gion, an
Islamic state, an Islamic philosophy, an Islamic law, an Islamic
society, nor an Islamic political or economic organization.
Just as surely as these aspects of Islamic culture may be rightly seen
as Qur’¥nic in basis and motiva tion, in implementation and goal, the
arts of Islamic civilization should also be viewed as aesthetic expres -
sions of similar derivation and realization. Yes, the Islamic arts are
indeed Qur’¥nic arts.
This statement may be startling to non-Muslims who have long
viewed Islam as an iconoclastic and conservative religion that denied
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Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ
or prohibited the arts.1It may be equally strange to some Muslims who
have misunderstood the efforts of the ¢ulam¥’ (learned men) and the
ummah to guide aesthetic par ticipation toward certain forms and
types of art, and away from others. Some Muslims have thought that
that guidance implied a rejection of, rather than a guidance for, Islamic
art. Both of these views are misunderstandings of Islamic art and its
genesis.
How then are the Islamic arts to be seen as “Qur’¥nic” expressions
in color, in line, in movement, in shape, and in sound? There are three
levels on which such an interpretation rests.
 
The Qur’¥n as Definer ofTaw^Ïdor
Transcendence
The Message to be Aesthetically Expressed: Taw^Ïd
The Qur’¥n was a revelation sent to mankind and intended to reteach
the doctrine of monotheism, a message conveyed to numerous Semitic
prophets of earlier times – Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus, for
example. The Qur’¥n comprised a new statement of the doctrine of
monotheism, of the one God Who is the unique, unchanging, and eter-
nal Creator as well as Guide of the universe and allthat exists within it.
Allah is described in the Qur’¥n as a transcendent Being of Whom no
visual or sensory experience is possible. “No vision can grasp Him, . . .
He is above allcom prehension” (Qur’¥n 6:103) . . . . “Nothing is like
unto Him” (Qur’¥n 42:11). He is beyond exhaustive de scription, and
incapable of being represented by any anthropomorphic or zoomor-
phic image. In fact, Allah is that which defies answers to the questions
of who, how, where, and when? It is this idea of the utter oneness and
transcendence of Allah that is known as taw^Ïd (literally, “making
one”).
The Qur’¥nic statements regarding the nature of God certainly pre-
clude God’s representation through sensory means, whether in human
or animal forms or in figural symbols from nature; but this is not all
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The Arts of Islamic Civilization
that the Qur’¥nic message contributes to the Islamic arts. We find that
the whole iconography of Islamic art has been significantly influenced
by the Qur’¥nic doctrine of taw^Ïd or Islamic monotheism. If God was
so com pletely nonnature, so ultimately different from His creation, it
was not just a negative prohibition of natu ralistic images of Him that
was necessary as Islam began its new career. That was an aesthetic
achieve ment of the Semitic soul which had been made in an earlier peri-
od by the followers of Judaism. Images of Yahweh were strongly
condemned by all the Hebrew prophets, as well as in the well-known
Second Com mandment of the Mosaic Code. Even setting down the
name of God was discouraged. Instead, the four con sonants of the
name “Yahweh,” or other abbrevia tions, often served as written sym-
bol for the God of the Hebrews.
Arising after the aesthetic influence from an alien tradition (that of
the Greco-Romans and their Hellen istic offspring) had exerted itself
for centuries over many regions of the Semitic East, Islam brought a
demand for a new manner of aesthetic expression. The new Muslims
needed an aesthetic mode that could supply objects of aesthetic con-
templation and delight that would reinforce the basic ideology and
structures of the society and be a constant reminder of its principles.
Such art works would reinforce the awareness of that transcendent
Being, the fulfillment of Whose will was the end-all and be-all, the rai-
son d’etre, of human existence. This orientation and goal of Islamic
aesthetics could not be achieved through depiction of man and nature.
It could be realized only through the contemplation of artistic cre-
ations that would lead the percipient to an intuition of the truth itself
that Allah is so other than His creation as to be unrepresentable and
inexpressible.
This challenge for aesthetic creativity was taken up by the early
Muslims. They worked with motifs and techniques known to their
Semitic, Byzantine, and Sassanian predecessors; and they developed
new motifs, materials, and techniques as the need and in spiration
arose. Even more important was their cre ation of new modes of artistic
expression which were to be adopted and adapted in various parts of
the world as Muslim individuals and political power spread with the
religion in the regions from Spain in the West to the Philippines in the
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Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ
Map 25. The Earth
According to Al
SharÏf al IdrisÏ,
562/1177
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The Arts of Islamic Civilization
East. These new modes have provided a basic aesthetic unity within the
Muslim world without suppressing or prohibiting regional variety.
Islamic art was to fulfill the negative implications behind the decla-
ration of L¥ ilaha ill¥ Allah–thatthere is no God but God and He is
completely other than human and other than nature. But it also was to
express the positive dimension of taw^Ïd –thatwhich emphasizes not
what God is not, but what God is. Probably the most salient aspect of
the Transcen dent which the Islamic doctrine taught was that God is
infinite in every aspect – in justice, in mercy, in knowledge, in love.
However fully one might try to enumerate His many attributes, or
describe any one of those attributes as applied to Him, the attempt
would end in failure.2His qualities are always beyond human compre-
hension and description. The pattern which has no beginning and no
end, which gives an impression of infinity, is therefore the best way to
express in art the doctrine of taw^Ïd. And it is the structures created for
this purpose that characterize all the arts of the Muslim peoples. It is
these infinite patterns, in all their ingenious variety, that provide the
positive aesthetic breakthrough of the Muslims in the history of artistic
expression. It is through these infinite patterns that the subtle content
of the Islamic message can be experienced.
The art of the Muslims has often been designated as the art of the
infinite pattern or as “infinity-art.”3These aesthetic expressions have
also been called “arabesques.”4The arabesque should not be limited
to a particular kind of leaf design perfected by the Muslim peoples, as
has sometimes been maintained.5 It is not simply any abstract two-
dimensional pattern that uses calligraphy, geometric figures, and
stylized plant forms.6Instead, it is a structural entity that accords with
the aesthetic principles of the Islamic ideology. The arabesque gener-
ates in the viewer an intuition of the quality of infinity, of that which is
beyond space-time; but it does so without making the –to the Muslim –
absurd claim that the pattern itself stands for that which is beyond.
Through con templation of these infinite patterns, the recipient’s mind
is turned toward the Divine, and art becomes a reinforcement and
reminder of religious belief.
This interpretation of the raison d’etre of Islamic art rules out many
common misconceptions regarding this art’s rejection of figural art
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Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ
and the concentration instead on abstract motifs. For example, it
denies the notion that nature is regarded by the Muslim as an illusion.
For the Muslim, nature is part of God’s tangi ble creation, equally as
real and valid and marvelous as humanity and the animal world. In
fact, nature is re garded as a proof of the Creator’s power and benefi -
cence (Qur’¥n 2:164, 6:95–99, 10:4–6, and so on). Neither can one
maintain that it is an Islamic idea to regard nature as an evil to be dero-
gated. How could the Muslim think of God’s creation as evil? Instead,
nature is described by the Qur’¥n as a field of perfect and beautiful
marvels presented for mankind’s use and benefit (Qur’¥n 2:29,
78:6–16, 25:47–50, etcet era). For the Muslim, nature, although glori-
ous in its variety and perfection, is only the theater in which humans
operate to fulfill the will of a higher realm or cause. God, for the
Muslim, is this highest Cause, “the greater One.” Allahu Akbar is the
ubiquitous Muslim exclamation of appreciation, admiration, thanks,
and inspiration that expresses this belief. While other cultures and peo-
ples may have regarded man as “the measure of all things” or nature as
the ultimate determiner, the Muslim’s concentration has been on God
in His uncompromising transcendence.7 Islamic art then has a goal
similar to that of the Qur’¥n –to teach and reinforce in mankind the
per ception of divine transcendence.
Characteristics of the Aesthetic Expression of Taw^Ïd
That is not the only way in which a bond exists between the Qur’¥n and
Islamic art. It is also embod ied in the aesthetic characteristics which the
Muslims devised in order
A Middle
Eastern to create the impression of
wooden plate
infinity and transcendence
decorated
with mother- demanded by the Qur’¥nic
of-pearl and
doc trine of taw^Ïd. How is
camel bone
inlay. The this doctrine emphasized
entire design
through aesthetic content
is inlaid –
not painted. and form to stimulate the
impression of infinity and
transcendence?
6